Governor Rick Snyder speaks at TECHONOMY Detroit hosted by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation at Wayne State University September 17, 2013. / Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press Business Writer

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Back from his third economic development trip to China, Gov. Rick Snyder today described how he tried to sell the Chinese on Michigan and the City of Detroit.

One of his pitches: Detroit’s assets are a bargain now, but are poised to rise.

“There’s a huge investment opportunity in terms of large-scale investment,” Snyder told an audience at Techonomy Detroit, a day-long conference at Wayne State University on the role of technology in job creation and urban revitalization.

“That was part of my pitch to them regarding Detroit. Detroit is the value place in the United States, in Michigan, and potentially the world in terms of a great value opportunity,” Snyder said. “Come in and invest now, because there’s going to be a great upside.”

Snyder returned Friday from his 10-day mission to China as well as Japan. It was the governor’s third investment trip to Asia since taking office.

“In some cases there’s been a history here of saying ‘We don’t want Chinese — it’s all bad,” Snyder said during a conference question-and-answer session. “We need to work on that mindset, and to say it’s a global economy and let’s embrace investment from other parts of the world whether it be China or someplace else.”

The governor did not offer any specifics on potential deals with the Chinese, or where their areas of interest in Detroit and the state could be.

Snyder said the Chinese asked many questions about Detroit’s bankruptcy. He said he explained that the city’s bankruptcy filing this summer was “not about a new problem,” but rather a chance to fix “60 years of accumulated problems.”

“Often people will say, ‘Well, after the bankruptcy is the city going to come back,” the governor told an audience of more than 500. “That’s backwards. The comeback has already been going on outside of municipal government, outside of the public sector. It’s already been going on in the private sector — you have Dan Gilbert here.”

Speaking later with reporters, Snyder said he had good meetings with officials from several Chinese auto industry companies. He said China’s auto industry is more focused on its domestic market than exports, but needs relationships with supplier firms.

“They want to be more global over time, so they need to look at North America. And if they’re looking at North America, this is the place to come,” Snyder said.

Chinese companies have already invested about $1 billion in Michigan, he said.

“That number has grown a lot, and is on a pace to grow quite a bit more,”